Live 105: Hiring a DJ promo

[EricSF]

Have been listening to Live 105 a lot recently. So far, I’m impressed. Their New Year’s special “Alternative Eras tour,” (a play on Taylor Swift’s tour but spanning various years in alternative music), was well curated and produced. Tight imaging and song selection. It spanned about a week and featured 30ish minute blocks of popular alternative and indie songs from one specific year (1990s-current). I definitely heard some songs that I haven’t heard on FM in years.

Cut to the chase, they were heavily promoting that they’re hiring on-air talent. Except, the catch is, they’re not looking for seasoned radio vets or even journalism/broadcast grads; they’re looking for literary anyone! It seems like a gimmick; they want listeners to submit a one minute video explaining why they should be the next genuine on-air drive for Live 105. If you visit the link on their website, they are legitimately hiring a full time personality through this promo. Seems like an interesting move from Audacy. I suppose, given recent success, they want to keep Live 105 as locally sounding/controlled as possible, but I’m wondering how others feels about this. Want to be a Live 105 DJ?

 

[michael hagerty]

Have been listening to Live 105 a lot recently. So far, I’m impressed. Their New Year’s special “Alternative Eras tour,” (a play on Taylor Swift’s tour but spanning various years in alternative music), was well curated and produced. Tight imaging and song selection. It spanned about a week and featured 30ish minute blocks of popular alternative and indie songs from one specific year (1990s-current). I definitely heard some songs that I haven’t heard on FM in years.

Cut to the chase, they were heavily promoting that they’re hiring on-air talent. Except, the catch is, they’re not looking for seasoned radio vets or even journalism/broadcast grads; they’re looking for literary anyone! It seems like a gimmick; they want listeners to submit a one minute video explaining why they should be the next genuine on-air drive for Live 105. If you visit the link on their website, they are legitimately hiring a full time personality through this promo. Seems like an interesting move from Audacy. I suppose, given recent success, they want to keep Live 105 as locally sounding/controlled as possible, but I’m wondering how others feels about this. Want to be a Live 105 DJ?

You need to click twice---once on that link and once on the "click HERE" to apply.

When you do, you'll see this:

Please note: This is a pipeline posting. All qualified applicants will be asked to apply to an open job requisition when one becomes available.

So this could be a while, and it could be any shift.

It also looks like they're trying to identify someone who's got the right DNA:

• Ideal candidate has some experience assembling content using digital audio/video editing platforms is required, along with expertise in social media and a firm grasp of current events and societal trends as it pertains the station’s target audience of Alternative music fans.

By Bay Area standards, the money's not great---but for a first radio gig...

Pay Transparency: The anticipated starting salary range for California based individuals expressing interest in this position is $75,000 to $90,000.

 

[chrocket87]

You need to click twice---once on that link and once on the "click HERE" to apply.

When you do, you'll see this:

Please note: This is a pipeline posting. All qualified applicants will be asked to apply to an open job requisition when one becomes available.

So this could be a while, and it could be any shift.

It also looks like they're trying to identify someone who's got the right DNA:

• Ideal candidate has some experience assembling content using digital audio/video editing platforms is required, along with expertise in social media and a firm grasp of current events and societal trends as it pertains the station’s target audience of Alternative music fans.

By Bay Area standards, the money's not great---but for a first radio gig...

Pay Transparency: The anticipated starting salary range for California based individuals expressing interest in this position is $75,000 to $90,000.

I’m curious, what is the going rate for on-air staff in the Bay Area or LA, not counting the highest paid morning drive outliers? Would 90K be similar to afternoons on, say, KOIT or KYLD?

 

[CTListener]

Sounds like what WFAN New York did 20 or so years ago (maybe longer) when they cast the net out for sports fans looking to become sports talk hosts. It worked beautifully, resulting in the hiring of Joe Benigno ("Joe from Saddle River"), who was a natural for the job and became a popular personality on the station.

 

[michael hagerty]

I’m curious, what is the going rate for on-air staff in the Bay Area or LA, not counting the highest paid morning drive outliers? Would 90K be similar to afternoons on, say, KOIT or KYLD?

I don't know. I can't imagine living in the Bay Area on $75-$95K. Maybe if it were a two-earner household with both people making about that money--but certainly not on just that salary.

 

[Mark Roberts]

By Bay Area standards, the money's not great---but for a first radio gig...

Pay Transparency: The anticipated starting salary range for California based individuals expressing interest in this position is $75,000 to $90,000.

In the Bay Area, that would have been a good salary in 1999. Twenty-five years later...no.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I don't know. I can't imagine living in the Bay Area on $75-$95K. Maybe if it were a two-earner household with both people making about that money--but certainly not on just that salary.

Or living with at least seven roommates.

 

[Weiserguy]

In the Bay Area, that would have been a good salary in 1999. Twenty-five years later...no.

That's about what Google would pay a decent barista.

 

[michael hagerty]

In a thread on this forum----I dunno, 20 years ago?---John Mack Flanagan, who did afternoons at KFRC from 1976 to 1979, (he'd done overnights in '73 and middays from '74-'76) told a story about his salary.

In '79, he and every jock at KFRC not named Dr. Don Rose made the same money---$37,500 a year.

Adjusted for inflation, that's $221,006 today.

John told the story because, as the afternoon guy, with numbers better than anyone except Rose, he felt undercompensated. The PD, Les Garland and the GM, Pat Norman, agreed with him and offered him $60,000 ($353,609 adjusted).

He told them to go jump.

They came back with $90,000 ($530,414 adjusted). He walked out.

Rose was making $300,000 ($1.76 million adjusted) and he thought he deserved at least half that.

He came to regret it, thought he'd been needlessly greedy and driven by ego.

The point, though, is that even the $37,500 then works out to more than double the $90,000 high end of the Live 105 posting, adjusted for inflation.

 

[Rock 100.7]

I used to live in Sonoma County (Sonoma & Santa Rosa)... There is NO WAY you can be a single income houhold on 90K a year. I'll stay right here.

 

[radiofan2023]

I lived in the Bay Area on less than that, but I had roommates, used coupons, ate dollar menu McDonald’s and worked 70 hours a week sometimes. It was fun while it lasted but I got tired of it after a few years. I wanted to buy a house, but what you could get was/is tremendously overpriced for what it was and even so, someone would still buy it. The lack of housing there is not just due to Prop 13 incentivizing people not to sell because that leads to reappraisal at the current tax rate, it’s also because a lot of the nimbys didn’t want their views ruined by more houses/multistory apartments, and because they were the loudest faction, the city governments listened to/felt they were beholden to them. There was a proposal to do a 20 story apartment building on ECR in San Mateo and the nimbys howled until the city council made the developers knock the proposal down to 10-13 stories for no good reason other than nimby busybodies who should have been told to go jump in the Foster City lagoon!

 

[pjc1961]

Sorta kinda related..."Miles The DJ" Anzaldo returns to Live 105 to host 10AM-3PM as of today (Mon. 1/8/2024).
Megan Holiday segues from Noon-6PM to 3-7PM.
Both are based out of KROQ L.A. - Miles will retain his Music Director and Regional Brand Manager positions there.

‘Miles The DJ’ Returns To LIVE 105

• The Bay Area is buzzing about the imminent return of market favorite "Miles The DJ" Anzaldo, who will take over the midday shift on heritage Alternative KITS (LIVE 105), starting Monday. At the same time, Megan Holiday will move from noon-6pm to 3-7pm. Anzaldo will retain his existing duties...

ramp247.com

Miles The DJ To Host Middays At Live 105 - RadioInsight

Audacy Alternative "Live 105" KITS San Francisco is adding a second personality to its lineup as KROQ Los Angeles based 'Miles The DJ' Anzaldo will host middays starting Monday. Anzaldo spent nearly twelve years at the original incarnation of the station from 2003 to 2014 rising from intern to...

radioinsight.com

 

[Yabadabado1]

In '79, he and every jock at KFRC not named Dr. Don Rose made the same money---$37,500 a year.

Gee, in 78/79 I was making $31,500 less than that. But then cost of living in NE Ohio was not as high as in California/Washington/Oregon. And everybody was jealous of the production director/on-air guy who was making $12,000 a year even though he did 4 hours on-air and the next 8 hours doing production work for five days a week.

 

[michael hagerty]

Gee, in 78/79 I was making $31,500 less than that. But then cost of living in NE Ohio was not as high as in California/Washington/Oregon. And everybody was jealous of the production director/on-air guy who was making $12,000 a year even though he did 4 hours on-air and the next 8 hours doing production work for five days a week.

San Francisco has always been expensive. In '76/'77, I was 100 miles up the freeway in Ukiah, making about what you were---$7,200 a year. But my apartment (one bedroom, one bath in a courtyard apartment with a pool and a nice view of the Mendocino Mountains above the rooftop on the other side of the pool) was $135 a month.

Something similar in San Francisco---even then---would have been $750-$1,000.

And even though the money they were making sounds pretty good to us, a lot of the KFRC jocks got apartments out in Walnut Creek and drove in.

In 1984, a Swedish broadcasting student interviewed Bill Lee and Harry Nelson, both recently at KFRC, both then in Fargo, N.D. The student asked about what a disc jockey in America should expect to make.

Bill's answer covered a few cities. For San Francisco, he said: "If they're not offering at least $50,000 a year, don't show up. You can't afford to live there."

That was 40 years ago.

 

[cc333]

Nowadays more than ever, I fimd the majority of the SFBA to be overhyped, overcrowded, and most real estate is overvalued, overpriced junk. The cost of living is unrealistic even for otherwise well off people, and the people, more often than not, tend to be pretentious, stressed, and not particularly friendly.

Sure, this isn't true of every place here, but in my experience, on average, it seems to hold, especially in the so-called "exclusive" areas.

If I didn't already own a house here (inherited from my grandparents), I wouldn't be interested. It may be home (I was born here), but I don't like it much, and there's nothing that compels me to stay. I'm only here while between houses because of one fire too many, and I can't get out soon enough.

That being said, it's not a terrible place to be, but I can think of places that are better without much difficulty. On the other hand, there are many places that are quite a bit worse, and it decisively beats being stuck in a war zone!

/complain mode

c

 

[radiofan2023]

Nowadays more than ever, I fimd the majority of the SFBA to be overhyped, overcrowded, and most real estate is overvalued, overpriced junk. The cost of living is unrealistic even for otherwise well off people, and the people, more often than not, tend to be pretentious, stressed, and not particularly friendly.

Sure, this isn't true of every place here, but in my experience, on average, it seems to hold, especially in the so-called "exclusive" areas.

If I didn't already own a house here (inherited from my grandparents), I wouldn't be interested. It may be home (I was born here), but I don't like it much, and there's nothing that compels me to stay. I'm only here while between houses because of one fire too many, and I can't get out soon enough.

That being said, it's not a terrible place to be, but I can think of places that are better without much difficulty. On the other hand, there are many places that are quite a bit worse, and it decisively beats being stuck in a war zone!

/complain mode

c

I lived in the South Bay and Peninsula but would often go exploring South City, Monterey, Livermore, Hayward, Napa, Oakland, Alameda, Half Moon Bay and other places on the weekends and everyone I ever met was always nice. Some people were flaky, but that was all I noticed, most people were super friendly. I agree with you on the housing problem, and until the various city councils and planning departments stop listening to the loud people who are against new high rises and adding to the housing stock, it will keep being a problem. I also wish Prop 13 would be repealed, but that will never happen.

 

[MVB13]

I can only imagine how expensive it is to live out here. I'm in Northern NJ outside NYC and it's expensive. My salary as a former educator isn't enough to live off of. Hence why I switched careers.

 

[cc333]

@radiofan2023 How long ago were you here?

It wasn't always like this. About 10 or so years ago, it was about like you described. Most people were decent and friendly, with a few flakes here and there. But somewhere along the way, something changed, and people got ruder and less friendly for some reason.

I feel like it must be, in part, related to increasingly divisive and extreme politics, combined with a once-in-a-generation worldwide pandemic that just wore people down, and now they just want to do what they want and be left alone.

c

 

[radiofan2023]

@radiofan2023 How long ago were you here?

It wasn't always like this. About 10 or so years ago, it was about like you described. Most people were decent and friendly, with a few flakes here and there. But somewhere along the way, something changed, and people got ruder and less friendly for some reason.

I was there from 2014-2018, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some people’s attitudes may have changed as a result of this pandemic.

The only bad thing was the competitiveness regarding jobs and housing, but I saw that as a side effect of having so many people and such a big economy and where like others have said, what you got in terms of housing for what you paid were usually opposites. Though that’s not limited to the Bay Area.

One of the places I lived was a courtyard apartment that hadn’t been updated since it was built in the 60s, it was $1200 without factoring in utilities, and our rent was raised 4 times in almost 2 years. They’ve since changed the law and landlords have to give either 60 or 90 days notice to legally change rent, it can’t be more than a 10% increase, and landlords can only change it after the lease term Is up, I think.

And to bring this back to radio, one of my roommates had worked for Eastman Radio in LA and the other’s friend worked at the station Don Bleu was on, and she got to meet him. She said he was a nice guy.

 

[cc333]

I was there from 2014-2018

Ah, I see. There were signs of change in 2017-2018, but people were much less ill mannered then.

I'm not sure if you'd like it quite as much now.

All the same old problems are still here that have always been here. some are better, others are worse, and some new ones have arisen, but the overall experience of living here has declined noticeably on average, at least in my experience.

c